NL-ONLY MOCK DRAFT

Tim McCullough, Managing EditorFebruary 20, 2013

RotoExperts recently held its
first mock draft of the 2013 draft season, a NL-Only draft of 23
players using a standard 5X5 scoring configuration. This was a
10-team league, drafting two catchers, one each at 1B, 2B, SS, 3B,
MI, and CI, five OF and nine P. The full results of the draft are
available for download in .pdf form right here.

The early rounds of the draft were somewhat unremarkable, as
most of the picks taken were in their expected draft slots. Sifting
through the comments from the staff, most seemed concerned with
picks between Round 5 and Round 14, which brings up a salient
point. After the first three or four rounds, team managers start to
reveal their real strategies, whether it’s a position scarcity,
category scarcity or a dominance play (where one corners the market
in a particular category or position). Keeping a close eye on the
picks in those rounds is crucial to your success.

The “middle” rounds in a mono-league draft are where the rubber
hits the road. The scramble to fill roster holes with quality
players becomes most intense in this section of the draft, as
managers continuously try to predict which players can be left on
the board for future picks, only to have hopes dashed when their
coveted players are scooped by someone else. So while the analysis
and commentary will focus on those middle rounds, we’ll take a look
at the whole draft, some rounds individually and others in groups,
to see where the values came, as well as where the mistakes were
potentially made.

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Tim joined RotoExperts in 2008. His writing has been published on SI.com, Yahoo.com, USAToday.com, and in several Fantasy Baseball and Football print magazines. In 2010, Tim won the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Award for Best Football Article on the Web, and in 2011 and 2012 he was a finalist for FSWA Baseball Writer of the Year.